BEWARE!!! ....THAT YOU SHOULD NOT ATTEMPT
A PROJECT THAT CAN KILL OR MAIM YOU......OR AN INNOCENT
BYSTANDER....IN A VARIETY OF MESSY AND PAINFUL WAYS... Unless you
are (or have) a competent Engineer , Welder , etc..

Remember
that when you are manhandling many pounds weight of solid steel
into position...

ACCIDENTS CAN HAPPEN...!!

If you
have ANY doubts about your own capabilities, make sure that you
use common sense, and enlist the help of competent people, and
make sure that there are no children or pets in the vicinty when
you are erecting a tower....

(Pic of tabernacle with rotator)

This
Tower was built for me by Jim EI8GS. Jim is proprietor of his
own engineering business, and does a lot of specialist metal
fabrication, pipework, etc. He is an extremely able Engineer,
and a devout "Ham". His main "affliction"
is contesting....but, I guess, no one is perfect.....!!

(Pic
of towerfully cranked down..Quad at about 33ft high)

(Tilted over...side view)

Basically,
The tower consists of two standard lengths of "box"
steel...about 25ft long. One length is 4ins OD. the other 3ins
OD. The narrower of the two, slides into the larger one. When
fully extended, this gives a height of about 45ft to the base
of the rotator cage. The rotator cage is about 3ft high to
the thrust bearing. The stub mast extends about another 5ft
above the thrust bearing, putting the Quad at about 53ft
high, when fully extended. When the tower is fully retracted,
the Quad sits about 35ft high

All of the finished
parts, were "hot dip galvanised", before the tower
was assembled on site. This is an important consideration for
me, as the QTH is on a penninsula, with the sea about a mile
away on three sides. In Wintertime, we have a lot of wind
borne salt, which is very corrosive of unprotected metalwork.
The design is rather clever , in that it uses only one winch
to both "crank-up" and "tilt-over" the
tower.

Here's
a VERY crude drawing of how one winch can do both jobs

( Views of pulleys and winch )

Janet 7Q7YL with the new tower under
construction..Brian 7Q7BP taking the photo